Yeah.
n a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) questioned just how evenhanded Pitlyk would be.
“Pitlyk’s record is extremely troubling and raises a number of questions about her ability to be a fair and impartial judge,” Feinstein said. Pointing to dubious claims about abortion, the senator added: “It is disqualifying for any judicial nominee to make unfounded and unsupported claims, especially in a court of law.”
Her critics have highlighted inflammatory declarations such as the one she made in an amicus brief opposing California’s protections of assisted reproduction technology, noted Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern. In the filing, Pitlyk asserted that “the practice of surrogacy has grave effects on society, such as diminished respect for motherhood and the unique mother-child bond.”
She has also argued that surrogacy “is harmful to mothers and children” and is a “practice society should not be enforcing.” Her position — that states should treat embryos like humans — would likely outlaw abortion, in vitro fertilization and surrogacy, Stern wrote. Vanita Gupta, a former head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said Pitlyk’s confirmation “is deeply disturbing. She is exactly the type of judicial nominee that Trump promised to fill the courts with: an individual who threatens reproductive rights and access to abortion,” Gupta, now the president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in a statement. “With Pitlyk’s confirmation, the administration is betting on her to carry out their agenda for decades to come.”